Finally a bit of rational in this thread. I'm guessing most of us forgot when Jonathan Blow reached out to Microsoft in regards to the Xbox 1's specs and was told “I have no political path to making something like that happen for an independent developer" by MS. He subsequently signed a timed-exclusivity deal with Sony and The Witness was widely praised and sold very well despite being a $40US dollar, digital only, indie game.

Same situation happening with Nintendo here.

I'm sure he is speaking from a US (west) prespective, but who knows.  Dragon quest going to NX can mean a handheld, which would make sense.

That is patently false in regards to Sony. They have been very indie-friendly. From supporting The Witness, No Man's Sky, FireWatch, Rocket league, Oddworld: New N' Tasty. Jonathan Blow even recounted his experience with both Sony and MS:

Blow reached out to Sony about releasing the game on their next console, which led to Sony eventually inviting Blow to their pre-announcement PS4 summit for developers and publishers.

In an interview with Ars Technica, Blow would go on to say how he similarly reached out to Microsoft and was rebuffed. When Blow asked his contact if Microsoft would acknowledge a next-gen Xbox, share its technical specifications, he heard back: “I have no political path to making something like that happen for an independent developer.”

This was prior to either console being released.

http://gamerant.com/witness-xbox-one-rumor/

Nintendo refuses to give de kits due to secrecy. Developer tells everyone. Yup, those guys don't look like someone you can rely your secrets on. Good call, nintendo.

^ Yes, and there were a few indie games available at or near-launch for Wii U, too, which suggests Nintendo probably did the same thing and reached out to a few indies really early, including ones who they hadn't worked with previously.

I imagine they'll do the same thing this time, but if it's devs they haven't worked with before, it's more of a "don't call us, we'll call you" thing. They'll reach out to devs early on if they feel it's necessary or important.

But what could the harm possibly be at this point?

Everyone knows the NX is launching in 2016, and the competitors already have their products out (for another 4years or so).

I think it hurts nintendo more than it helps them, if they lose potential 3rd party developers from this.

They should be inviteing all developers in, getting them to sign NDA and informing them about their console at this stage.

We all know Nintendo is a generation late with almost everything(Wii not supporting high-definition, Nintendo 64 not using optical media, Gamecube not using conventional DVD's which hindered storage) so they will probably learn the importance of Indies on the NXII :P

Is the NX gonna be something that no one has ever done before, no. It's either gonna be on par with Sony/MS, or it's not. Hiding the hybrid system function is pointless. There's not much sony can do to "copy" that feature. Unless they make a new handheld. What else would they hide? The specs? Sony and MS can't change that now. Unless they're hiding this stuff, not to get bashed. Nintendo walks on to the stage and the system is lower powered still. Doesn't change their fate. Just delays it. They're hiding the controller? Nintendo has done everything in exsistance, with controllers. Nothing will really surpise anyone, anymore. The only thing that would be a true surpise. Is if they have all 3rd parties. Info on specs would actually help them. 

This is an extreme warping of the dialog actually going on.

You should be used to it by now lol.